Cheapest(legal) way to get MSDN and...

[d000hg]

they are basically targeting independent software houses.

I think that's the point. Helping a freelancer isn't so much in their interest as helping a 'real' company who are likely to grow and buy lots of full-price stuff later.

Just out of interest, how much extra do you get in the Visual Studio Pro version that you don't get in the Express (free) versions?

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudi...s#compareTable

[thunderlizard]

I think that's the point. Helping a freelancer isn't so much in their interest as helping a 'real' company who are likely to grow and buy lots of full-price stuff later.

But they don't seem to be interested in helping a normal non-software company either (i.e. one that builds its own software for its own use but isn't a software company).

[Durbs]

But they don't seem to be interested in helping a normal non-software company either (i.e. one that builds its own software for its own use but isn't a software company).

Because you should be contacting your friendly local Microsoft Partner for all your software doings.